Cruising the Aegean

Okay, trying to recap the last three nights will be a challenge since there is sort of a jumble to time and place and events going on in my head.

On Tuesday morning we visited Ephesus, Turkey.  Totally worth it.  Best site I have seen yet.  Again, someone stole the important stuff, but it doesn’t matter.  It is the most well preserved historic site we have seen.  It is vast and expansive and amazing.  I would go back. 

Home

That’s the thing.  Those of us who talk about this keep saying either they would or would not go back somewhere.  There are so many places I still need to visit, so re-visiting a place requires a different level of special-ness.  Ephesus has got it.  Istanbul, too.  Before those places, I was happy seeing it all one time and tucking the memories away in my brain.

We only had about 20 minutes back to the port in Kusadasi and it was a relief to get off the prison, I mean bus.  We boarded a ship and set sail for the Greek islands.

Our first stop was Patmos that very afternoon.  Patmos is obviously not too far from Turkey, but is a Greecian island, of the Apostle John fame and the book of the Revelation.  We saw the cave John is purported to have written his visions in, which reminded me of trudging through the Orthodox Church in Bethlehem.  We also visited a monastery.  The island is charming and remote (8 hours by ferry from Athens) and our sweet guide told us we should pick up some Patmos cheese pie in the village.  I found some and took it with me to dinner and shared it with our Australian and Argentinian table mates.  It was good (it stands to reason that all the food we have found for ourselves is gigantically better than the tourist stop slop we have been forced to choose from), really yummy.

Lindos, overlooking the Port Paul where Paul likely arrived

We sailed further south and stopped at Rhodes the next morning for the day.  We went to Lindos on Rhodes saw some more ruins and it was the tipping point for me.  I made it through the guide’s lecture but then, couldn’t make it down the steep hill fast enough.  It was a beautiful town, it was an awesome site, but I think I can’t listen anymore.  I just can’t.

We moved on down to the ancient city of Rhodes and walked around a bit there because it was closest to the port and we could go back and forth from the ship.  It was a cool city in which people still actually live. You have to have a special permit to have a car there, and even then can only have it if you live within the city walls.  Bonnie and I grabbed some tea at a little spot for the free wifi and watched different members of our group strolling by happy with packages in hand.

Map of the Ancient City of Rhodes

Yesterday it was Crete in the morning.  We visited the very very ancient Minoan Palace of Knossos.  But, I was D.O.N.E.  The progression of my symptoms were thus:  I first had the hand wringing, then I moved on to the swaying of the body back and forth, then I began the pacing.  I lasted an hour.  I would be terrible in a hostage situation.  I think, upon reflection, that what I was experiencing was withdrawal.  At first, I thought I had just discovered over the course of this trip that I am a really bad listener.  This was not exactly a new idea, but I didn’t think I was that bad that I couldn’t stand around for an hour and listen to the history of the Minoan’s.  Come on, that civilization rocks.  They pretty much started everything, it turns out.  Or at least, a lot of things.  Anyway, they are old…actually, I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t listening.  On a normal day in my normal life, this experience on the island of Crete would have blown me away.  But, missing my family took priority.  On the cruise ship, there was no wifi.  I take that back.  There was wifi if you wanted to pay something like 1.90 euro a minute.  A minute.  I can barely formulate a text in that time.  So, I had a burning yearning in my soul to touch base with Jeff and the girls, hear from my sister and so on.  I ditched the group and they are way smarter than me now and I am automatically disqualified from the Jeopardy Minoan Daily Double because I found an awesome cup of coffee and even awesome-er free wifi at the museum café for about 20 beautiful minutes.  The jitters totally subsided and even though no one was awake when I was on, I got to read the notes that had been sent the night before and send some new ones.

at the Knossos Palace

Back on the boat.  I haven’t said much about the cruise ship because there is not much to say.  It was a great way to get around the far flung islands.  Our leader on this trip mentioned that we should have been thinking of the ship as an upgrade from a ferry boat.  That explains a lot and enough.  The best part of the ship was meeting people from all over the globe who were on the same mission as us…see this part of the world. 

After Crete, I must not neglect to say that we arrived in Santorini.  The arrival was beautiful, because of the turquoise blue waters and the steep cliffs of the volcanic island.  From a distance, it looks like there is snow on the top of the cliffs, but as we approached we saw it was crisp white houses perched like birds on the rims.  We took a shuttle to Oie (pronounced eee-ah) and wandered this photogenic town gasping at the blue roofs and white homes that cling to the side of the cliff.  Couldn't be a prettier town in Greece, I think.  We grabbed a quick coffee in a little spot overlooking the water and reveled in our good fortune of being in Greece together with new friends.  I would go back to this place, for sure.

Santorini

Santorini

We have docked now and are on our last leg at Athens.  There is so much more to say and think about, but I am ready to get home and my mind has turned to that.  I will try to blog again the last day of this journey, but we will see. 

What can I say but I am grateful.  Each night as I have fallen asleep on this trip I have been reciting a prayer:  Lord, you who have given me so much, give me one thing more:  a grateful heart.  That is where I want to land every night as I drift off to sleep.  There is so much to be grateful for and the inconveniences only seem trifling and sometimes even a reminder of the good things I am missing.  What a gift. 

Until later.